My Fat Dadis the touching memoir of nutrition consultant and New York Times writer Dawn Lerman. If you’ve seen any of her “fat dad” blog posts, you will know that she was raised by a father who was seriously overweight and food-obsessed and spent most of his life cycling through every imaginable fad diet until a stage-3 lung cancer diagnosis forced him to finally turn his eating around. His food issues traced back to his mother, Beauty, who was a fabulous Jewish-style cook. Since Dawn’s mother was a creative,

free-spirited type who found mothering and cooking a burden, Dawn gravitated to Beauty who adored and doted on her and imparted her with her passion for food and cooking. Lerman tells her life story—which includes really neat elements like how she launched her younger sister, April’s, acting career, and her teenage midnight sneak-outs to Studio 54 where she became a regular—interspersed with recipes from each era. The book is super fun to read, and though not all of the recipes were my cup of tea, there were definitely several I plan to try, such as the Sweet Potato Hummus, Creamy Cashew Butternut Soup, Beauty’s Salmon Patties, and Protein-Packed Linzer Cookies.

No Sweat! How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness, by Dr. Michelle Segar, is putatively about physical fitness but really addresses the longstanding philosophical problem of akrasia, or weakness of the will. Why do the vast majority of people make an exercise plan only to have it fizzle out within weeks? Why, in contrast, do some others find time to exercise no matter what? Segar’s thesis is that when we try to motivate people by invoking the many reasons for exercise, we approach the matter all wrong. Motivation is not a matter of acquiring more facts—people are not stupid, and the health and weight benefits of exercise are well known—but of engaging the emotions. If would-be exercisers do not derive immediate benefit, pleasure, and gratification from exercise, their workout ambitions are bound to fail because their motivation will rely entirely on willpower—which we have in limited quantity and which peters out. Instead, the key to long-term success is that we must find physical activity that in real-time feels good, fun, and rewarding. Her book outlines her expert views on how to accomplish this, validating Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza’s belief that “I can control my passions and emotions if I can understand their nature.”

The Allergy Solution by Dr. Leo Galland and his son, Jonathan Galland, explores “the surprising, hidden truth about why you are sick, and how to get well.” Their thesis, supported by thousands of case studies, is that in many, many instances, common maladies are allergic reactions to foods and common environmental substances. For example: a patient with persistent mouth sores healed after eliminating nightshade vegetables, another from hives after eliminating yeast, and another from exhaustion and body aches by getting away from the mold hidden behind her office walls. Dr. Galland retraces his detective work in these and many other cases, which is fascinating in its own right, and then presents a detailed questionnaire for you to assess your own allergic status. The final part of the book outlines a three-day “Power Wash” to identify and remove allergic triggers, and then offers dietary advice for rebuilding a more allergy-resistant immune system. While not every illness will of course be traceable to allergy, and while a skilled practitioner would be needed to trace allergic sources in most cases, this book may offer hope to patients whose doctors have merely medicated their symptoms rather than discovered the underlying causes of their illness.

What does the Dalai Lama’s wisdom have in common with blogging? I ran into this quote from him several times recently, and it was too good to let go: “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” One thing it called to mind—aside from the gut sense that the DL had identified the meaning of life in seventeen words—was a remark that my favorite nutty, always brilliant blogger, Penelope Trunk, wrote about blogging: “Your life is boring. I’m sorry to tell you this. But actually all our lives are boring.” Why, then, does she or anyone else bother to blog? “To give the reader something they want.” It boils down to kindness: “I try to focus on this with every post I write. But in fact, this is advice about how to do anything in your life: Help people as much as you can. Give people what they need, and if you focus on that, the rest will fall into place.”

It’s so counterintuitive: Why should focusing our efforts on other people make us happiest? It’s like saying that an archer will best hit his target by pointing his arrow someplace else. To be happy, focus on someone else’s happiness. How does this make sense?

And what about those other people? Is it okay for them to fixate on their own happiness? You know, the ones you’re busy helping? Of course not, unless they wish to be unhappy. So it seems like we’re all part of a massive circle jerk, each assured satisfaction by not considering his or her own satisfaction. This could’ve been Zeno’s fifth paradox.

Wouldn’t it be easier for each of us to worry about ourselves, since who knows what another person needs or wants anyhow? Actually, no. Think about how well you know what you yourself need and want. Now think about how well you grasp what your child, spouse, parent, or best friend needs and wants. In my case anyway, I honestly feel I can often identify their stuff better than my own. We don’t support a billion-dollar self-help/find-your-purpose industry because it’s so clear to each of us what we need and want. Half the time I have no idea if I’m heading down the correct path, or if I’ll one day regret that I didn’t do things differently. That’s surely why the ancient Oracle at Delphi said that one of the keys to ultimate wisdom is the principle to “Know thyself.” It’s also why so few people possess ultimate wisdom.

Back to the circle jerk, then, which is sounding like a better idea all the time. You cannot succeed at being happy by focusing exclusively on your own joy because you lack the perspective to know what your own joy consists of. You may also lack the self-compassion to really do the best for yourself. I thank goodness for the people in my life who love me and help me along toward happiness. If I had to rely on myself for love and kindness, Social Services would’ve intervened and I’d probably be in foster care by now. I’m kidding (sorta), but we all tend to be our own harshest critics, and, interestingly, critics of a self we so poorly understand.

The lesson in all this is positive: Yes, you can be happy! Yes, life is meaningful and purposive! But don’t waste time obsessing over your own happiness, meaning, and purpose. Direct your attention to others, help them see themselves more clearly and become happier, and through this process, your own joy will evolve.

]]>https://kaleandkant.com/to-be-happy-dont-try-to-be-happy/feed/6Eating Out without Pigging Outhttps://kaleandkant.com/eating-out-without-pigging-out/
https://kaleandkant.com/eating-out-without-pigging-out/#respondTue, 17 May 2016 14:47:51 +0000http://kaleandkant.com/?p=3818Over the years, I’ve discovered strategies for eating out while avoiding weight gain. A fundamental mistake is to assume that restaurant food is nutritionally and calorically similar to home-cooked. It’s not. There’s a reason why it’s often tastier, and it’s not merely due to professional chefs’ sophisticated understanding of ingredients, seasoning, and spices—though, of course, their expertise helps. It’s that the vast majority of cooks and chefs aim for flavor, not nutrition. I don’t fault them, but if padding the restaurant’s bottom line pads your butt, too bad.

The flavors and convenience are what makes it fun to eat out, but also risky. Several years ago, when I was nursing four babies in rather quick succession, I spent a lot of time watching the Food Network to pass the time. Back then, the programming was about technique and recipes, not glam cook-offs and reality TV. I watched and learned a lot. One thing that I always noticed was that what the chefs were telling you and what they were doing, were often two separate

things. They’d say, “And now, lightly coat the pan with a little olive oil,” and I’d watch them dump the bottle upside down and a 1/4 cup pour out. Or they’d tell you to “drizzle” oil or dressing on a salad or greens, and, again, the bottle would just dump over and the formerly “light” salad would now be in a fat bath. Or, they’d say, “add in a little shredded cheese,” and giant fistfuls would be tossed into a dish.

Now, I recognize that TV chefs are cooking for the camera and possibly using exaggerated movements, but these things were so ubiquitous that it couldn’t help dawn on me that, hey, if I eat foods as prepared by the average chef, I’m going to double my calories at least. Maybe the food tastes better—although certainly not always—but is it worth it?

Sure enough, as we slog through another decade of the obesity epidemic, eating out has been identified as one of the central culprits, and I’m convinced that chefs’ heedlessness of fat content is a big part of the problem. Several other common elements of the restaurant experience have been implicated in our national fattening, too, of course, including:

1. Bloated portions.

2. Bread and chip baskets.

3. Rich desserts.

4. Sodas, juice, or that “extra drink.”

5. Breading and other such preparations.

6. Deep-frying, sautéing, and other oil-saturated cooking methods.

7. Salads buried under mounds of calorie-dense items like croutons, nuts, and cheese, then topped with hefty ladles of dressing.

Let me start by saying that fat is an essential nutrient. But, as we have discussed before, it has to be good fat and in the right quantity. The heavily processed vegetable oil in which most restaurants fry that breaded cutlet is inflammatory and unhealthy. If it’s a finer restaurant using higher-grade oils, that’s better depending on what they’re using, but quantity remains an issue. Not to snark, but look at the belly on a talented chef like Mario Batali, and watch how he portions fats in his cooking demos. By “drizzle” he usually means “dump.” Compare that to the fanny of a chef like Rocco Dispirito who was tired of feeling exhausted and gaining weight and turned around his cooking methods, slimmed down, and now writes great books like Cook Your Butt Off!, teaching gourmet technique minus the calorie explosion.

As for enjoying the delicious food at restaurants while not pigging out, here are ten things to do when you’re eating out to avoid taking part of the meal home on your rear end and thighs. Follow these consistently, and you will notice a difference. You will see that you can still have a wonderful meal, but you won’t go home feeling bloated and regretful. Break some of the rules on special occasions—of course!— but even if it’s your birthday, grossly overeating is no way to celebrate and treat yourself.

1. Do not order foods that are prepared deep-fried or “crispy” or breaded unless it is an appetizer for the table to share and you will only be having a couple of bites. Savor them, but don’t make such food your main dish.

2. If your food is to be sautéed, request “light” or “extra light” oil. (Even requesting “light oil” doesn’t work with some chefs, I’ve found, as they are accustomed to using so much.) This goes for the main protein, but also for side vegetables. You’re better off having them steamed and putting a small pat of butter or drizzle of olive oil on top yourself than trusting that the harried chef will take care not to overdo it. By the way, beware, too, of roasted foods. I’ve ordered roasted vegetables on many occasions which come to the table oil-saturated. Grilling is usually safer, but no matter what you’re ordering, requesting “light oil” is crucial!

3. Unless you are the kind of person who can nibble a bit and not overdo it, just say no to the bread basket. That’s hundreds of calories you don’t need—usually of empty, refined white flour—that will fill your stomach so you enjoy your real food less. Same goes for the giant basket of chips with salsa. Just make it go away—it’s greasy and simply not worth the few moments of enjoyment. (When was the last time you started a home-cooked meal by first setting out a huge bowl of chips for your family to fill up on?)

4. Seek out stock-based soups that are non-dairy. These are low-calorie and very filling, not to mention nutrient-dense. A spoon of milk or cream can make soups delicious, but based on the way I’ve seen dairy soups prepared by the pros, they use far more cream than you want or need. Save those kinds of soups to make with light dairy or coconut milk at home and stick with the stock-based ones when you’re out.

5. Beware of the bar. If you order a standard cocktail that has alcohol and fruit juice, you can easily be consuming 300+ calories. Order a second and you’ve just drank the caloric equivalent of what your entire lunch might be. But you’re also eating a complete meal on top of that! Stick with mixers like club soda or a little bit of fresh citrus. My current favorite—thanks Jim Bellinson—is tequila on the rocks with a salted rim and a few segments of lime and orange on the side to squeeze in. Perfecto. Or try vodka on the rocks with club soda, muddled with lime, cucumber and mint. Drink wine in moderation, of course. A glass at dinner some nights is fine. Once you start ordering a second and third on a regular basis, the calories mount fast. If I do want a little more after one glass, I will share a second glass with someone, restaurants have no problem with pouring two half-glasses.

Finally, please don’t order soda. Let’s be honest: It’s sugar water. Each can of coke has 140 calories, and other drinks like Dr. Pepper, Sunkist, lemonade, sweetened tea, etc. have even more. The waiter does you no favor with his free refills. Diet sodas play games with your pancreas and dump chemicals into your bloodstream. How about a club soda on ice with lemon or lime or even with a small splash of juice? I’m also told water is an excellent thirst-quencher.

6. When ordering salad, always ask for the dressing on the side, and either have them go “light” on heavier toppings (like cheese, croutons, dried fruits, nuts), or ask that they be served on the side. Also, request romaine lettuce or other dark greens in lieu of iceberg, much healthier.

7. Whenever possible, opt for a double side of vegetables in lieu of a starchy side—and inquire as to how the vegetables are cooked. I have nothing against having brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat cous cous or pasta, or even some potatoes with dinner. The problem at a restaurant is the preparation. Except for baked, potatoes will almost always be fried. Even the baked potatoes are ginormous and usually come with butter, sour cream, or cheese. Mashed potatoes have these all blended in already. Ask how the simple sides like quinoa or brown rice are prepared. Even if they are simply cooked in water, they are often then heavily sautéed or dressed. If you’re ordering a dish like Asian vegetables with rice noodles, request that they double the vegetables and halve the noodles; you won’t notice the difference, and you’ll save a ton of calories while amping up the nutrients. You can also ask for “light sauce” and have them put extra sauce on the side, in case you want to add a little more.

8. Speaking of sauce, in most cases, just request sauces on the side. They are delicious but are based on butter or oil, so a little goes a long way. I always request extra lemon wedges no matter what I’m eating. They add a ton of flavor to salads, veggies, and everything else and let you go lighter on heavier sauces and dressings.

9. If a plate of food large enough to feed an NFL defenseman is set before you, plan on taking half home.

10. Finally, the quantities of sugar and butter in professional baked goods and sweets are astounding, and though it’s fine to take a taste or two of something being passed around the table—the very best way to enjoy dessert out—you certainly do not need to finish your meal with an extra 500+ calorie bomb. Savor the flavor, and pass that plate along.

Okay, if you’re still reading, my final words of advice are, first, to ignore the snickers from your co-diners. They, too, should be interested in what they are eating and asking more questions. Maybe you’ll teach them something. My husband sometimes makes fun and says Woody Allen has nothing on me. I don’t care. My pants fit great. By the way, he’s started asking a lot more questions himself when we dine out…

Finally, remember to eat slowly, chew well, and pay attention to the pleasures of the delicious food you’re enjoying. It’s no fun to be so wrapped up in conversation or so distracted that you look down at an empty plate and don’t remember having eaten it. What a shame! Try some or all of these techniques most times you eat out, and the only thing you’ll be missing as you leave to go home is an even puffier muffin top. Bon Appetit!

]]>https://kaleandkant.com/eating-out-without-pigging-out/feed/0Supplements and Herbshttps://kaleandkant.com/supplements-and-herbs/
https://kaleandkant.com/supplements-and-herbs/#commentsMon, 02 May 2016 18:40:44 +0000http://kaleandkant.com/?p=4451The supplement industry is big business, and just about everyone I know takes one or more supplements daily—including me and every member of my family. There is often an assumption that supplements are a simple form of insurance that can help halt or reverse poor lifestyle choices. They are also seen as a remedy for a bad diet. Finally, they are perceived as harmless substances that, worst case scenario, you just pee away.

All false.

1. As a recent WSJ article reports, many supplement interfere with prescription drugs needed to treat cancer, depression, hypertension, and more. Our body uses various enzymes to metabolize drugs, and supplements can sometimes inhibit these enzymes so that the drugs build up in our bodies and become toxic or expedite these enzymes so that the drugs pass through without doing their job. Anyone being treated with any prescription medicine needs to alert their doctor to the supplements they are taking—70 percent of us don’t—and, if their doctor is not well informed, find one who is. This is especially so for those on chemo. A good place to start is by downloading Memorial Sloan Kettering’s About Herbs app.

2. There is no supplement that will make up for lack of sleep, exercise, hydration, and proper stress management. Period.

3. The supplement industry is basically the Wild West—poorly regulated and full of charlatans. As the NYT reported last year, the New York State attorney general’s office found 80 percent of the top store-brand herbal supplements sold at GNC, Target, Walgreens and Walmart “did not contain any of the herbs on their labels.” Testing frequently revealed “little more than cheap fillers like powdered rice, asparagus and houseplants, and in some cases substances that could be dangerous to those with allergies.” At the very least, this cautions extreme diligence when purchasing supplements. Caveat emptor.

As I mentioned at the outset, I myself continue to take certain supplements despite all of this. But I do so under the supervision of a doctor who has run labs to determine what supplementation my body needs—iron and B12, for example, are problems for me—and I try to be meticulous about brands and sourcing.

As the ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates famously stated: “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” It has become increasingly obvious that food is a highly complex nutrient delivery system that cannot come even close to being replicated in pill form. Want to be healthy and feel really good? Eat a diet rich in colorful produce, nuts, seeds, legumes, and intact grains, and keep your food as close to its natural, unrefined state as you can. There is no substitute for this in a pill.

]]>https://kaleandkant.com/supplements-and-herbs/feed/5What is Processed Food?https://kaleandkant.com/what-is-processed-food/
https://kaleandkant.com/what-is-processed-food/#commentsThu, 14 Apr 2016 10:30:25 +0000http://kaleandkant.com/?p=4491We are inundated with the message to avoid processed food, but what does that mean? It obviously refers to fake food-like substances such as chips and soda, but what else? Here are some things to watch out for.

Sweeteners. Any sweetener that has been dried, powdered, and packaged is processed. Stevia, for example, starts out as a plant that looks like this. By the time we buy a packet of Truvia or a clear liquid Stevia tincture, it’s processed. Does this mean it’s unsafe? Not in small quantities. But if you’re mindful of portions and don’t have blood sugar issues, you might as well use a whole food sweetener like honey or maple syrup. These hit your blood stream the same way as white sugar would, but they have other nutritive properties, and you’re better off enjoying moderate amounts of real food.

Grains. Any grain that no longer looks like it did when it was harvested is processed. This is what wheat starts out looking like. A wheat berry is a whole grain. White flour is processed, and, sorry to say, whole-wheat flour is processed as well. (More on this shortly.) Oat groats are a whole grain. Instant oatmeal and oat flour are processed. Brown rice is a whole grain. White rice has been milled and polished.

As blogger Darya Pino Rose points out, we need to distinguish “intact” from manipulated grains. True whole grains are intact and look like they did on the plant they came from. Everything else is more or less processed. Your body gets far better information and metabolic activity from intact grains than it does from bread, pasta, or cereal, even if these are 100% whole wheat or whole grain. Flour is not an intact food; it does not exist in nature. Not to say don’t eat it, but if you want to move to a more whole food existence, bear that in mind.

The FDA is characteristically unhelpful (or worse) when it comes to elucidating this topic. As Pino Rose continues, it misleadingly defines “whole grain” as any food in which the endosperm, bran, and germ “are present in the same relative proportions as they exist in the intact caryopsis.” This is specifically not to say that they must exist in their original, unprocessed form! So, e.g., Kellogg’s can, and does, process the hell out of wheat berries and then adds back some powdered processed germ and bran, along with big helpings of sugar and chemical dye, and slaps the term “whole grain” on the box of, say, Froot Loops. Then the FDA classifies Froot Loops as a healthy “Smart Choice.” Ask yourself: Would your great-grandmother have known what to make of Froot Loops if she had chanced upon a pile of them on the kitchen counter? I’m guessing she would’ve thought they were some kind of toy or game. Food? Never. The regulatory calisthenics that underlie the FDA’s classification of Froot Loops as anything other than edible garbage are mind-blowingly corrupt.

Deli and cased meats. Bacon, sausage, hot dogs, deli meats, jerky and ham are all, no surprise, heavily processed. When you slaughter and butcher a cow, you end up with steak, ribs, etc.—not deli rolls of roast beef or hot dogs. I’m not suggesting you go load up your grocery cart with NY strips, but if you’re going to eat meat, strive for real meat from clean sourcing—grass fed, organic, drug and cruelty free—and avoid meat of unknown origin that has been smoked, cured, salted, and filled with preservatives. The World Health Organization classifies processed meat as Group 1 or “carcinogenic to humans.”

Juice. Fruit juice is one of the heavy hitters driving the type-2 diabetes epidemic. Pediatricians now widely recommend eliminating it from children’s diets, and it doesn’t belong in yours either. It is very dense in sugar and calories, and the fiber is gone. Take OJ: an eight-ounce serving has more than 110 calories and 0g fiber. A whole orange, in contrast, has about 85 calories and 4g of fiber, which will both fill you up and help your body absorb the fruit’s natural sugars more slowly. Juice dumps the sugar into your bloodstream all at once forcing your pancreas to pump extra insulin—the fat-storage hormone—to mop it up. If you’re concerned about vitamin C, eat foods like citrus, red peppers, leafy greens, broccoli, and kiwi, and you’ll get all you need.

Most pre-made dressings. The first red flag should be how long store-bought condiments can live in your fridge. Real food goes bad; fake food can sit on a shelf for years. Instead, consider mincing a clove of garlic, and adding to that one tablespoon of Dijon mustard, 1/8 teaspoon of salt, a few grinds of fresh pepper, and shaking these up in a screw-top glass jar with a half cup each of any tasty vinegar and olive oil. This dressing tastes better than anything you will buy bottled, and it took you about two minutes. After a week, you make it again, and you can have fun by adding fresh herbs, different vinegars, etc. You want your kids to eat more salad? Involve them in making it, and then set up a salad bar with lots of good toppings. This is how I get my four children to eat–and enjoy—salad every day.

I could go on, but I know by now you get the idea. I’ll close by quoting a few of Michael Pollan’s awesome 64 food rules that sum it all up best.

“If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.”

“Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.”

“Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.”

“Eat only foods that will eventually rot.”

“The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.”

]]>https://kaleandkant.com/what-is-processed-food/feed/3Food and Freedomhttps://kaleandkant.com/food-and-freedom/
https://kaleandkant.com/food-and-freedom/#respondSat, 12 Mar 2016 12:07:32 +0000http://kaleandkant.com/?p=4382
“When someone exposes himself as a slave in the market place, what wonder if he finds a master?” —Simone Weil (1909–1943)

I was recently reminded of this famous remark by French thinker Simone Weil, and it got me thinking about Cheetos and Coke. Weil’s remark was part of a lament about modernity’s substitution of utility for truth, but immediately I thought of another application: food. To wit: when we present ourselves as hapless victims at the supermarket, what wonder that Big Food steps in as master?

We allow ourselves to be seduced and enslaved by the food industry in so many subtle ways.

We rely on slogans printed by manufacturers on packages to guide our purchases. “Natural”? Must be good for me. “Whole grain”? Same. Forget about the fact that “natural” can be slapped on any box and literally means nothing, and “whole grain” printed on a loaf of bread can refer to nothing more than some some seeds having been sprinkled on top of what is otherwise merely a loaf made from white flour. Even words like “organic,” which are better regulated, are misleading. I see “organic” stamped on all sorts of things, from cookies to potato chips. Don’t assume that that moniker necessarily means “good for you.”

We get sucked into the center of the supermarket when we shop, oblivious to the billions that have been spent designing it to lure us toward fake food—which it reliably does, especially when our kids are in tow. Did you ever notice what happens during a shopping trip when you remain at the periphery of the store? That’s where the whole food is: produce, dairy, meat, fish, etc. Now picture the center aisles: cereals, mixes, chips, cookies, etc. If you doubt this, form a picture of your own store in your mind and test it out. Know thy store and enter the vortex carefully and only when necessary.

We fall pray to the media’s relentless pushing of this or that fad nutrient, thinking that if we swallow a few supplements, all will be well. But pills cannot deliver nutrition in the intricate manner nature designed, and though they may be helpful in some contexts for certain deficiencies, they can never be a substitute for eating well. Moreover, they pose a distinct health hazard when taken incorrectly.

Our fear of cooking makes us vulnerable to the lure of highly processed prepared food. But always remember that time “saved” with quick, unhealthy food will eventually be lost at the doctor’s office. Those who find home cooking intimidating often just don’t know where or how to start. For ideas, Google “quick healthy recipes” and check out such sites as: bbconline, whfoods, cookingchanneltv, and realsimple. YouTube offers thousands of simple instructional cooking videos. The New York Times has a terrific recipe site, and you can search up “easy” and find thousands of things to try. One concept that I’m seeing a lot of lately is that of a full dinner roasted in one shot on a single baking pan. Finally, a crockpot can become your best friend, delivering a nutritious hot meal the moment you walk in, exhausted, at 6pm.

Gloria Steinem once quipped, “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” Go ahead, get angry at the food culture, at yourself and even at me! But when the dust settles, take heart from George Washington’s observation that “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” Getting started is always the hardest part, but once we reclaim our food freedom, rejecting Big Food becomes progressively easier, a simple matter of habit. “Our freedom can be measured by the number of things we can walk away from.” (Vernon Howard)

(P.S. The above photo depicts the brain fuel that was laid out at the snack break at a recent high school debate tournament in which my teenage son competed. Says it all.)

I have had the great fortune to be in L.A. since last week to attend the Natural Gourmet Institute‘s (NGI) two week intensive Culinary Nutrition program. A dozen of us are in “school” every day from 9-4, where mornings are spent learning nutrition theory, and afternoons are devoted to “culinary translation”—transforming the theories and information into nourishing, delicious, gourmet food. The days are capped with a group feast, where we delight in our creations and discuss and tweak the recipes.

The only way for me to describe how it feels to spend all day every day around this incredible group of of chefs, nutritionists, and other healthy gourmet food enthusiasts is that I’ve found my “mothership.” My gratitude-o-meter has blown up. This almost does feel possible or real.

For those unfamiliar with NGI, it was started in 1977 by the visionary Dr. Annemarie Colbin in her Upper West Side New York apartment kitchen. Colbin was decades ahead of her time in advocating a return to traditional, sustainable natural food preparation that could at once be gourmet and healing. She began a tradition of Friday night dinners that continues at the school despite her unfortunate passing in April of last year.

Today, as the NGI website states, the school is “the leader in health-supportive culinary education and has graduated over 2,500 chefs from over 45 countries.” In my program alone people have come from everywhere from Brazil, the Philippines, and Mexico to New York and Mississippi. We have restaurant owners, health-minded home chefs, writers, a medical student, a movement therapist, and a professional food stylist. An eclectic group, we are united by a passion for Colbin’s 20th century translation of Hippocrates’ ancient dictum, “Let food be thy medicine…”

I highly recommend you check out Colbin’s 2013 Ted talk, in which she presents her philosophy of food. You can learn more about NGI’s mission here. I’m heading off to school now, but please enjoy this gallery of some of the dishes we’ve prepared this week. And, yes, they taste as good as they look!

]]>https://kaleandkant.com/hello-from-sunny-l-a/feed/7Teaching Kids to Cookhttps://kaleandkant.com/teaching-kids-to-cook/
https://kaleandkant.com/teaching-kids-to-cook/#commentsMon, 08 Feb 2016 20:46:00 +0000http://kaleandkant.com/?p=4373I ran a cooking lesson yesterday with a group of terrific teenage girls who wanted to learn more about healthy food. They had varying levels of kitchen experience, so I kept it simple and planned a menu geared to develop some basic skills, including how to: (1) prep and roast vegetables (cauliflower and sweet potatoes), (2) blend a basic vinaigrette and prepare a green salad, (3) marinate a lean protein and grill it, and (4) make soup (butternut squash and red lentil). With this arsenal, they could easily put together a healthy, two-course meal for their own families, or just make themselves a great snack or lunch.

The class was really fun for me, and I was in my happy place watching them inhale plate after plate of vegetables. In addition to a host of kitchen skills, I had the opportunity to explain the difference between whole and processed food, the importance of cooking for yourself and not always turning to a package, good and bad fats, hidden sugars, and the reason why people can’t stop overeating the three Bad Boys—white flour, white sugar, and refined oil. (Hint: most all of the water, fiber, and nutrients have been taken out, so your body has no idea how to “read” them. That, and they’re engineered to be physically addictive.)

I think they all went away inspired by how simple it can be to prepare delicious food on your own, and why it’s important to learn this skill early on—to avoid everything from the “freshman twenty” to long-term illness.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, I’ve stressed before that educating your children and teens in this is no less important than teaching them how to bathe, read, or drive a car. Kids who do not develop this basic skill are doomed to become victims of our toxic processed food culture, sentenced to a lifelong struggle with food.

If you don’t cook, view your children’s need as an opportunity for your own personal growth. Go take a few local cooking classes, watch Tasty or other YouTube instructional videos, and tune into food shows on TV. There are cooking teachers, camps, and programs at local community houses that help adults and children alike get comfortable in the kitchen. If you live in the metro Detroit area, Schoolcraft College offers intensive youth culinary programs in the summer—check them out. You can even pick up a class at Sur La Table stores at your local mall.

I do need to enter one caveat about classes billed as “cooking for kids.” Quite often all they propose to teach kids is how to make cookies, brownies, and cake. Steer clear of class menus based solely on white sugar and flour, as though these are all kids could possibly be interested in learning about. The enthusiasm of my students yesterday is sure proof to the contrary.

If you already cook, you are of course your children’s best resource for learning how to prepare food. Invite them into your kitchen space and give them the lifelong tools they will need to feed and care for their own bodies. And, by the way, there is a special kind of bonding that can only occur in this setting. Try it and see.

It is well known to my readers that Americans’ eating habits are fueling the so-called “diabesity epidemic” that is shortening both the quality and length of most of our lives. Children who are not schooled in healthy eating are destined to become a statistic. Get them on the path of good food awareness early on. It’s our responsibility as parents.

The main health issue with cans is their BPA lining. BPA stands for bisphenol A, and it is used to protect canned foods from becoming contaminated by the metal in cans, and is also used in many plastic products such as water bottles and in printed receipts you are handed at the store. More than 90 percent of us walk around with it in our bodies.

Is BPA harmful? As I’ve written in BPA and Male Frog Vaginas, the problem with it is that it’s a form of synthetic estrogen and functions as what we call an endocrine disruptor—i.e., a substance that interferes with normal hormone production and distribution within the body. It has been studied quite extensively and linked to miscarriages and early puberty, development in children of abnormal ovaries and reduced sperm count, and breast and prostate cancer, among other things. Smaller bodies metabolize it more slowly, so children are most vulnerable to its impact.

The BPA industry begs to differ. They announce on their website: Based on government research, along with results from other studies, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently answered the question: “Is BPA safe?” with a clear answer—“Yes.” Yet, as trustworthy as the BPA industry and its federal shills undoubtedly are, we have professors of developmental biology such as Frederik vom Saal contending that government and industry recommendations base their conclusions on faulty data. Do they? Forbes magazine isn’t so sure and in 2014 ran a very skeptical piece on vom Saal’s conclusions which, they note, are funded by millions in research grants. Not so squeaky clean.

So where does that leave us hapless consumers? This is just one more area where it’s up to each of us to decide what to worry about health-wise and where to draw the line. Here is how I sometimes approach this issue.

Have you ever heard of Pascal’s wager? Pascal was a 17th century French mathematician and philosopher famous for grappling with the question of whether to believe in God. Here is his calculus or “wager.” If you choose to believe in God and God exists, you’ll gain heaven and avoid hell; if you’re wrong, you lose nothing. If you choose not to believe in God and God exists, you’ll lose heaven and go to hell; if you’re right, you gain nothing. There is more to be gained by believing than there is to be lost by not believing. Hence, the rational agent will believe.

What does this have to do with BPA and, more generally, with our choices about what to believe or disregard with respect to health claims and scares? The way I see it, we have nothing to lose, except perhaps a little time and money, by exercising caution when it comes to manmade chemicals. Since we are exposed to myriad chemicals in multiple areas of our lives, and since scientists have no way of gauging whether this total load is connected with, say, the cancer epidemic—their studies can measure this chemical or that, but not the sum total of chemicals in the sum total of our food supply and environment, which is really what our immune system confronts—we appear to have more to both gain and lose by caring about potential hazards than by not caring.

That’s my logic, and if it’s also yours and if you want to minimize your family’s exposure to BPA, here are a few practical steps.

Buy organic canned goods. Look for companies such as Eden, that eschew BPA in their packaging.

Shop at Trader Joe’s. Their website offers a lengthy list of their BPA-free canned goods.

Refuse cash register receipts unless you really need them. Although they don’t go in your mouth, their chemicals go right into your bloodstream through your pores, which, as I’ve written, are like thousands of tiny mouths.

Don’t drink canned sodas—as if you needed another reason. Stick to glass bottles for beer as well.

Never allow foods to be microwaved or heated touching plastic, another major source of BPA. Use glass and wood containers, and if you must cover a bowl that’s being nuked, lay a plain white paper plate over it. (Do you really want melted plastic wrap in your lunch?)

You may think I’m nuts and wasting my time avoiding products that may after all be harmless. It’s a free country, so please have at it. However, there is something wrong in the world when twenty- and thirty-somethings are regularly diagnosed with cancer, and when autoimmune diseases are epidemic. I, for one, can’t just stand there feeling helpless; I am compelled to do something, even it turns out that that something was of no use. But my gut tells me otherwise.

]]>https://kaleandkant.com/is-canned-food-safe/feed/6Better Fried Ricehttps://kaleandkant.com/better-fried-rice/
https://kaleandkant.com/better-fried-rice/#commentsSun, 17 Jan 2016 13:20:42 +0000http://kaleandkant.com/?p=4314Today I want to share a simple fried rice dish that I made last night that my family really liked. When you order fried rice at a restaurant, there is a huge oil to vegetable ratio. The trick to making healthy—but no less delicious—fried rice is to flip that ratio on its head. This also happens to be one of the tricks to making just about any dish lower in calories and more nutritious. And if you’d like to eat more but weigh less, apply a similar algorithm to the relationship between the grain and vegetables in a recipe. Eating out? Ask that dishes be made with double the veggies and half of both the oil and grain or noodle—your heart and rear end will say thanks.

Ingredients

1″ ginger, minced

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup chopped broccoli

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

3 cups day-old cooked brown rice (long grain such as basmati works better than short, which is very sticky)

Heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet. Add the ginger and garlic, sautéing over low-medium heat for one minute. Add the broccoli and mushrooms and cook for three minutes. Add the rice and stir well. Add the edamame and mixed vegetables, mixing all to combine. Blend in the soy and teriyaki sauces as well as the toasted sesame oil. Let the dish cook for another several minutes, stirring occasionally. If using, mix in the chicken or tofu, keeping the pan cooking until they are warmed through. Taste and add additional soy and/or teriyaki sauce as needed. Add the snap peas, scallions, and sesame seeds. Combine and taste one last time for seasoning. If all is well, transfer to a serving platter and top with cilantro. (Use parsley or basil if you’re one of the people to whom cilantro tastes like soap.) Serve with Sriracha sauce.

*If you’re using chicken or tofu that isn’t already cooked, just add with the broccoli. You may need to adjust seasonings since they won’t already have flavor. Just keep tasting!